Episode 067: How to Build Your Email List Using Quizzes with Josh Haynam of Interact

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As creative entrepreneurs, we constantly hear about the importance of growing our email lists. But, how do you convince more people to sign up for your emails, engage with your content, and eventually become happy customers?

Believe it or not, online quizzes are one of the most effective ways to build your email list. After all, when you give website visitors helpful, personalized information within a fun, engaging quiz, they’ll naturally want to share their email address with you to get access to even more of your great content. 

But, how do you create a quiz your audience will actually want to take, and how can you easily build a quiz and add it to your website? Well, in this episode of Priority Pursuit, Josh Haynam answers these exact questions.

Josh is the co-founder of Interact Quiz Builder, a software that helps creative entrepreneurs build leads and make sales by connecting with customers through engaging and personalized quizzes. The very first quiz he and his co-founder made in 2014 converted at 40%, while the websites they were building only converted at 2%. Because of this crazy successful conversion rate, Josh went all in on quiz building to help his clients generate leads. 

Today, Interact customers enjoy the same 40% average conversion rate with personalized and engaging quizzes that generate 42,000 new leads per day across multiple industries. (For comparison, landing pages with downloadable PDFs only have a 10-14% average conversion rate. That’s quite a difference!) Basically, by creating interactive and relatable quizzes that entice people to share their email addresses, creative entrepreneurs can stand out in their industries, continue conversations in their ideal customers’ inboxes, and form connections with their leads.

In this episode of Priority Pursuit, Josh explains how you can build your email list using quizzes that are fun, engaging, and relatable to your audience. 

Why do creative entrepreneurs need to build their email lists? 

You might be wondering if email marketing is really all that necessary—after all, can’t clients just find you and connect with you on Facebook or Instagram? 

Well, social media is critical to your company’s success online. But, Josh reminds us that these marketing tactics have complex algorithms that are constantly changing. It can be difficult and time-consuming to stay on top of these updates and to revamp your social media efforts.

What’s more, social media is borrowed media. This means you’re sharing attention (and followers) with other business owners in an already-crowded online space.

In contrast, email marketing consists of owned media. You are in charge of your list, and it’s a “valuable asset that grows,” Josh tells us. Even if you switch e-marketing platforms (such as going from Constant Contact to Mailchimp), you’ll still have your list of subscribers that you can simply upload to your new platform. And, while you’ll need to occasionally trim your email list and remove leads who are no longer interested, those remaining subscribers who’ve opted in actually want to keep hearing from you.

Why should you build your email list using quizzes?

Quizzes are an effective way to get more email subscribers because:

• People tend to love taking fun quizzes, especially if the results are interesting and useful.
• According to Interact, quizzes have a 50% conversion rate for lead generation.
• You can tailor the content your new subscribers receive based on their quiz results.

If your quiz content is relatable and helpful, people will be more likely to connect with your brand and want to learn more. And, that’s exactly what can happen when you use a strategic quiz to collect email addresses and deliver even more valuable information right to prospects’ inboxes.

According to Josh, a quiz allows you to help your customer solve a problem they’re facing. For example, the top question Interact clients have is, “What quiz should I make for my customers?” So, Josh and his team created a quiz that helps their clients answer this question by providing personalized results based on the responses they give in the quiz. 

All creative entrepreneurs have to do is give their name and email address to see their “What quiz should I make?” results and get helpful advice tailored to their specific business needs. These results show you which type of quiz would resonate with your prospects and encourage them to sign up for more content—allowing you to build your email list with quizzes.

Essentially, quizzes are such a great way to grow your list because, according to Josh, they result in high conversion rates and provide your audience with content that’s specific to them.

When & how should you use quizzes for lead generation?

Josh acknowledges that a quiz isn’t always the right marketing tactic. After all, we have to earn the right to appear in someone’s inbox and have them read our content.

For example, let’s say you’re answering a question for which someone could easily find the results elsewhere. A gated (any email-required media) quiz might not make sense here, but a blog post or other ungated content may work well. If your information isn’t valuable or exclusive enough, you’ll frustrate customers by gating content with a quiz or asking for their emails.

But, if you’re trying to gather specific information to learn how you can help a certain customer or group, a quiz could be a great option. You can ask website visitors to opt in by providing their email addresses so they can access their quiz results.

In return, you’ll send them those results with additional information, such as detailed next steps they should take, or the key benefits of a product or service they might find helpful. Including this specific content (along with the quiz results you promised) is helpful to your leads, especially if they’re ready to make a decision and become a buyer.

What are some examples of quizzes creative entrepreneurs can make?

No matter what type of business you run, Josh tells us to consider the questions your audience is asking, then build a quiz that helps them answer those questions. By creating content (like a quiz) that website visitors find valuable and informative, you’ll encourage them to engage even more with your brand.

For example, a wedding photographer might create a quiz that helps brides answer one of these questions:

• What’s your photo style?
• What does your dream wedding look like?
• What’s your bridal style?
• Which wedding package is right for you?

Or, a hairstylist’s quiz might feature a question for clients like:

• What hairstyle looks best on you?
• What do your bangs say about you?
• What’s your go-to natural hairstyle? 
• Which hair color is best for you?

If you’re still unsure what type of quiz will resonate best with your audience, Josh suggests using Interact’s template quizzes. These templates will help you decide what questions to ask to engage your website visitors and qualify your leads.

How can creative entrepreneurs add quizzes to their websites? 

In this episode, Josh also explains how easy it is to create quizzes and embed them on your website with Interact. He recommends starting with one of their quiz templates, adding your own questions and responses, and choosing from stock photos. You can further customize the template quiz to incorporate your brand colors, tone of voice, and more.

Interact has expert writers and quiz strategists on staff who can assist you if you’re not sure what content your quiz should have. For an additional fee, you can chat with a quiz strategist to get specific advice for your business scenario. Or, you can completely hand over the reins to Josh and his team so they can write and embed the quiz for you, as well as upload and connect your email list.

After you’ve created a fun and engaging quiz, it’s time to embed it on your website! Interact has guides and videos to help creative entrepreneurs add quizzes to a variety of website platforms, from ShowIt to WordPress and everything in between. Josh also mentions that once you’ve embedded your quiz on your site, you can directly integrate it with the list from your existing email marketing platform. You’ll then be able to segment your email list by things like quiz answers to specific questions to further tailor your content to your audience.

One of the best parts about growing your email list with a quiz is how quickly you can see results. Josh tells us that the creation-embedding-email integration process takes just a couple of hours, and it can get you new leads by the end of the day!

Friend, I hope this interview with Josh inspires you to start (or continue) to build your email list using quizzes! When you take time to discover the questions your audience is asking, you’ll be able to relate to them and form genuine connections as you offer solutions to their problems. By crafting interactive, engaging quizzes, your prospects will be happy to give you their emails and see you in their inbox!

Want to hear more from Josh?

If you’d like to connect with Josh, access template quizzes, and discover more resources for converting leads into happy customers, you can find him on Instagram (@tryinteract) and at tryinteract.com.

Links & Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Book a Free Quiz Strategy Call with Interact

Visit the Interact Blog

What Type of Quiz Should You Make for Your Online Quiz?

Save 50% on Your First Six Months of QuickBooks Self-Employed 

Receive 50% Off Your First Order with Photographer’s Edit

Receive $20 Off Your First Pair of Rothy’s

Join the Priority Pursuit Facebook Community

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram

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